The Impact of Climate Change on Hydroecological Response in Chalk Streams

Annie Visser, Lindsay Beevers, Sandhya Patidar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)
76 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Climate change represents a major threat to lotic freshwater ecosystems and their ability to support the provision of ecosystem services. England’s chalk streams are in a poor state of health, with significant concerns regarding their resilience, the ability to adapt, under a changing climate. This paper aims to quantify the effect of climate change on hydroecological response for the River Nar, south-east England. To this end, we apply a coupled hydrological and hydroecological modelling framework, with the UK probabilistic climate projections 2009 (UKCP09) weather generator serving as input (CMIP3 A1B high emissions scenario, 2021 to the end-of-century). The results indicate a minimal change in the long-term mean hydroecological response over this period. In terms of interannual variability, the median hydroecological response is subject to increased uncertainty, whilst lower probability extremes are virtually certain to become more homogeneous (assuming a high emissions scenario). A functional matrix, relating species-level macroinvertebrate functional flow preferences to functional food groups reveals that, on the baseline, under extreme conditions, key groups are underrepresented. To date, despite this limited range, the River Nar has been able to adapt to extreme events due to interannual variation. In the future, this variation is greatly reduced, raising real concerns over the resilience of the river ecosystem, and chalk ecosystems more generally, under climate change.
Original languageEnglish
Article number596
JournalWater
Volume11
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 22 Mar 2019

Keywords

  • Climate change impact
  • Ecosystem functionality
  • Freshwater ecosystems
  • Hydroecological impact
  • River health
  • UKCP09

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • Aquatic Science
  • Water Science and Technology

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